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I had to semi miss parkrun this work due to a work commitment. I went to volunteer again as volunteer coordinator but then had to leave at 9.3o to get to work. In a way it was probably a blessing in disguise. I fell at work on Monday (over a door frame of all things) and probably would have been tempted to give it a go had I not have had a work commitment. It is still a bit sore so it was for the best really. So instead of a parkrun update I thought I’d post about where I’d like to visit. I know, I can barely walk them at the minute but once I’m able to run them I’d like to do a little bit of tourism and check out some local and some not so local parkruns.

Close to home

Some of these are going to be easy to achieve. They aren’t that far away and I’d be able to drive there on a Saturday morning.

Southsea – I’ve heard Southsea is very similar to my home parkrun Lee-on-the-Solent, but with less marshals. It’s flat, it’s by the sea and has a great café. It’s also where some of my parkrun friends started their parkrun adventures before Lee became their home parkrun.

Netley Abbey – I encourage people to come and visit me at parkrun this used to be because I couldn’t drive and because I couldn’t bear to give up my volunteering. However I can drive now and I’m nearly at the magic 100 times I strived to volunteer. Anna has visited me a couple of times at Lee so maybe one day I’ll be able to let her show me her home parkrun?

Southampton – Southampton is one of the biggest parkruns in the UK so I’d like to see what such a big parkrun is like, although Lee is huge it’s actually half the size of Southampton.

A little further afield

Medina IOW – I’ve never been to the Isle of Wight but I’ve known there was a parkrun there for a while. I recently saw pictures of this parkrun on Instagram and it looks lovely as it runs alongside the River Medina.

Poole – This is another huge parkrun and I’ve heard good things about it from some of my parkrun friends. Apparently they go the extra mile for runners by providing water and laminating services for your barcode.

Weymouth – I adore Weymouth from my first holiday there in 1997 I have pretty much been back every year since even when it meant travelling by train to get there from Sheffield. I’d love to run a parkrun here but have to admit, I’m disappointed it’s not on the beach front.

A lot further afield

Bushy – The home of parkrun, surely everyone has to run this once in a lifetime? Also they have deer! Not many parkruns can boast that!

Sheffield Hallam – I first heard of parkrun when I lived back home in Sheffield. Sheffield Hallam was my local parkrun but I never made it to one, even when I could run. I guess a mixture of nerves and the unknown? Without knowing about parkrun I’d have never volunteered when Lee-on-the-Solent started up. This is such a familiar course, I have walked it a thousand times but it’d be great to do it officially.

Scotland

So most people know I love Scotland. If we hadn’t of moved to the South Coast I’d have looked at moving to Scotland.

Ganavan Sands (near Oban) – After completing this parkrun I’d go for locally caught seafood in Oban. Can’t think of a better day to be honest.

Inverness – I simply love the Highlands, the scenery there is just something else so why not parkrun in Inverness where I’ve spent so much time. I’d stay in the log cabin we’ve stayed in before at North Kessock.

Aviemore – Aviemore is such a beautiful place. It has Loch Morlich which is probably the prettiest Loch I’ve ever seen. It also has reindeers!! When I’d finished this parkrun I’d refuel at Roo’s Leap.

I think that’s a big enough list for now. I’m pretty sure over time there will be others I add.

I’m not usually one for making goals, but maybe this is why nothing ever changes for me? I’m not setting myself specific targets but goals I’d like to work towards throughout 2017.

In 2017 I want to continue taking charge of my health. I started this in the latter part of 2016 by preparing healthy lunches to take to work. During the week between Christmas and New Year I’ve made sure I’ve done something active every day be it a walk or a bike ride. I hope to continue getting in a bit more activity.

This is a goal you see a lot. I love reading but I tend to spend more time reading blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc. when actually I could read a book. I’ve read lots between Christmas and New Year and I hope to keep this up through 2017. Once upon a time I used to keep track of all the books I read in a year. Maybe this will add an incentive to keep reading.

It’s time to complete one…and maybe a second if I enjoy it! I love volunteering at parkrun and to date have volunteered 70 times! (71 on New Years Day) Yet I’ve never completed a parkrun. It’s time to change that.

I need to embrace my inner me. I sometimes feel like I have to accept every invitation that comes my way and whilst that’s ok sometimes, fact of the matter is I like being at home. I’m not in to going out and having a wild time anymore, that just isn’t me and I need to learn to be comfortable with that.

It’s been a while since I did a parkrun post so I thought I’d tell you about Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve started off really jolly. There were a lot of runners in fancy dress ranging from a simple Santa Hat to full on costumes of elves carrying runners like this one!

Photo courtesy of Steve Wood

When it started we knew there were more people than normal. I filmed the start and it took 40 seconds to get everyone through rather than the usual 15 seconds, but it never occurred to us just how many people there were or why there were so many. Was it because we’d planned Reindeer pacers for the event starting with Dasher at 19 minutes?

Photo courtesy of Steve Wood

According to the parkrun page our parkrun has an average of 290.4 runners each week. We usually sit around 300-350. I’m going to let you in to a little secret here. We only have enough finish tokens for 500 runners in the box we keep at the finish funnel.

Photo courtesy of Steve Wood

I’m not even sure that picture does justice of how many people there were!

I knew it was busy as when I was barcode scanning I was asked to move further away from the finish funnel. That doesn’t usually happen. I then got asked to move another 3 metres away from the finish funnel. Apparently the finish funnel was getting so crowded the time keepers were having to move forward as the funnel was full and they couldn’t click the runners coming in to finish.

We were all kept in the festive spirit though by these lovely people playing Christmas Carols!

Photo Courtesy of Steve Wood

Then we hit it, the magic 500 and we ran out of tokens! Imagine the panic that filled people. Some clever soul had the idea of writing the finishing numbers on the runners hands. They then went to manual entry and had their details taken that way. Luckily the runners at Lee on the Solent parkrun are a friendly bunch and straight away we had people offering to help take down people’s details and asking what they could do to help.

Afterwards we had a little time to reflect. Our parkrun is so successful and it’s going from strength to strength. However some lessons had to be learned and so a longer finish funnel and more finish tokens will be ready at the end of the run on New Years Eve. I can’t wait to see how it plays out, especially as I am Run Director. I have excited nerves! And hopefully I won’t have to enter the 52 people by hand that I did last week!

Never been to parkrun? Be sure to find your local and register here. New Year is a great time to start.